Senate theatrics over taxes

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blocked an attempt by his Republican counterpart to hold two dueling votes on extending tax cuts, including a plan President Barack Obama called for earlier this week.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) requested that the Senate take up a GOP-backed plan to extend all Bush-era tax cuts for one year as well as Obama’s narrower plan to temporarily extend tax cuts for the first $250,000 a family makes in one year.

Reid, a Nevada Democrat and close Obama ally, promptly objected, ridiculing the GOP plan as the “Help Paris Hilton legislation.”

“It would give people like her a tax break for doing nothing,” he said of the wealthy socialite and former reality TV star.

The majority leader accused Republicans of trying to distract from a Democratic jobs bill currently on the Senate floor that would give small businesses tax breaks for hiring new employees and giving raises, and allow them to quickly write off purchases of new equipment.

But McConnell said he was dumbfounded why Reid would not allow a vote on a tax plan the president had called for only two days earlier, even as Republicans argue such a limited approach would cause small businesses to pay higher taxes at the end of the year.

“On Monday, the president said that if the Senate passes this tax hike on small businesses he’d sign it right away,” McConnell said. “I can’t see why Democrats wouldn’t want to give him the chance.”